Desterro Guarani

An immersion in spirituality and everyday life of the Mbya-Guarani from the Koenju village in Southern Brazil.

In the village of Koenju, in Rio Grande do Sul, young Mario and his "gang" make fun of the challenges of today's Mbya-Guarani reality.

An immersion in spirituality and everyday life of the Mbya-Guarani from the Koenju village in Southern Brazil.

An intimate meeting between two women filming each other. An exploration of the relationship of two artists: an indigenous filmmaker and a non-indigenous visual artist and anthropologist.

The Land Without Evil is the mythology that guides the Guaraní communities. It narrates the search for a lost paradise. From the moment that Europeans crossed the Atlantic, it became the anima of a resistance discourse. How many different weapons does it take for a fight? The solo exhibition of Patrícia Ferreira Pará Yxapy, one of the most engaged women among Brazil’s Indigenous filmmakers combines new works and the archive behind her audiovisual journey over the past 15 years, always in close collaboration with the Mbyá-Guarani Cinema Collective. It presents Indigenous cinematic practice as a tool of resistance and healing showcasing intimate and painful thoughts on the feminine, on spirituality, colonization, and the relationship to land.

In the village of Koenju, in Rio Grande do Sul, young Mario and his "gang" make fun of the challenges of today's Mbya-Guarani reality.

In July 2014 the police of Pernambuco used extreme violence against the Movement Occupy Estelita. Without trying to open any channel of dialogue, the riot squad, GATI and other troops used a disproportionate amount of force for the repossession of an area from José Estelita pier, in the city of Recife. It got clear during the day that the police were there not only to carry out a lawsuit, but to try to repress a legitimate movement of civilians.

Brazil, 2016.

Beginning with the arrival by canoe of a TV and VCR in their village, The Spirit of TV documents the emotions and thoughts of the Waiãpi as they first encounter their own recorded images and those of others. Viewing news broadcasts and videos of other Brazilian native peoples, the Waiãpi see the power of images to facilitate memory preservation and political awareness. Some people worry, though about the invasive spirits of outsiders that can come through the TV. Another concern is the negative exposure that might result from the Waiãpi broadcasting their own images.

The story of ‘Captain’ Krohokrenhum, leader of the Gavião indigenous people, from Pará state in northern Brazil, who died in 2016.

In 1985, a daring worker of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Brazil denounced a massacre in the lawless region of Corumbiara. The investigations turned to a series of indigenous genocides in the area. Spanning 20 years, the film shows the search for proof and the version of the survivors, when they were finally found, hiding in the forest, terrified of white men.

Waving the flag that states every film is political, Vincent Carelli visibilizes in this documentary the cause of the Guarani-Kaiowá: a group of indigenous people that fear their lands, located in the Mato Grosso do Sul, will be confiscated by the State. A territorial conflict born more than one hundred years ago, during the Paraguay war. While fighting against the Brazilian Congress in order not to be evicted from their homes, the 50.000 indigenous people demand the demarcation of the space that belongs to them. With some rigorous investigative work, the Brazilian director tells with his own voice of the social and political injustices suffered by the Guarani people through material he filmed over the course of more than forty years. The archive images, both color and black and white, reveal the crudeness with which they coexist every day: among the violation of their civil rights and the guts with which they confront the usurpers.

This video documents an encounter between two groups of indigenous Brazilian people. Wai-Wai, a Waiãpi leader, takes a trip to meet the Zo'é, a group only recently contacted by outsiders. Both tribes speak Tupi-Guarani dialects and share many cultural traditions; a rapport quickly develops between Wai-Wai and the Zo'é as they take on the roles of anthropologists, questioning one another about hunting techniques, crafts, and forms of dress. Having had more experience with white society, Wai-Wai is able to warn the Zo'é about the potential danger of gold prospectors. He also introduces video technology, to everyone's fascination, and makes videos of his trip to show to everyone at home

The Waiãpi indigenous people decide to meet and document the Zo’é people. after met, the Zo’é make the visitants know their ancestors' life style; the Waiãpi tell them about the dangers of the white world.

Thirty years ago, a rubber company enslaved a group of Asháninka people, manipulating them into tapping the trees in the lush borderland between Peru and Brazil. The company was expelled by a coalition of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, led by one mixed race couple. Now the adult children of this marriage combat political corruption and ongoing environmental disaster.